Aspects and Effects
Aspects are a little tricky and tend to be very free-form. This makes it difficult to come up with a tested framework by which to describe what they actually do. Of course, Aspects are always 'true'. Whatever they're describing is a fact in the game world. And, you can use them to Invoke to get +2 for a FP. This section is talking about what happens when an Aspect of any sort gives you something more. Whatever form that something "more" takes (say, being burnt alive), it can usually be Overcome by making some kind of roll - see below. So how do we know these extra mechanic effects happen? If it's something I've come up with ahead of time, they'll be in place (or triggered by some specific action - think Indy pulling the gold statue off the trap). However, you (the players) can get access to these by rolling a Succeed with Style on a roll to Create Advantage. If you don't get the 3-shift success required, you can still get the same sorts of effects, but they'll be either reduced in scope (one target instead of a whole Zone), effect (+1 difficulty instead of something more), or duration (just 1 roll rather than effective until Overcome). What kinds of effects am I talking about here? Could be anything, it's a narrative system. That said, here's some examples: * Moving in or out of a Zone. Usually this is free. An Aspect could make this a contested action - you have to roll and Overcome an obstacle or you can't get in/out. Examples: ** Mud / Quicksand: Make a Strength/Acrobatics roll with a target of +2 or you can't move in or out of the zone. You could use this for obstacles such as barrels and boxes, or broken glass. ** Similarly, something horrible could be in the Zone, and your conscience might make it hard to move in (say, something demonic or just really really smelly...). This could be an opposed roll or just something passively nasty (dead bodies) - roll some sort of Will, Spirit or Psyche test. ** Under a Watchful Eye: You'd better be sneaky or trigger something else - an iron golem stands watch between you and the zone beyond. Make a Stealth check opposed against its Notice or be attacked on your way out! * Zone attacks. Usually you don't have to worry about being attacked by the zone that you are standing in, however certain aspects could cause everyone in the zone to suffer attacks. Examples: ** Inferno: Standing in a building which has the Aspect 'On Fire' could require a roll to defend against an attack (the strength would be determined by the GM based on the current strength of the fire). This would be applied equally to everyone in the zone. ** Rock fall: You bring down the roof! Timbers and tile fall to the ground, anyone moving through that area now has to make Dexterity rolls for difficult terrain. ** Explosion: This would generally be a one-time attack suffered by everyone in the area of effect. Depending on the source of the explosion, it could potentially cause another Aspect (such as 'On Fire'. * Distraction. A common result of one action is to distract your target from doing something else. Distraction should add 1 or 2 to your difficulty to do pretty much anything while it's in effect (Save the +2 for effects that REALLY hit home, like the enemy holding a hot chick hostage). Think about throwing Sand In The Eyes, for example. * Attracting Unwanted Attention. The earlier examples made for die rolls aplenty. Here, an Aspect could just make you the target of something, or just make your life more difficult. Usually in this case die rolls will be more complex until you can remove the attention. ** Embarrasing Faux Pas: You manage to screw up royally and insult the Queen, so any social rolls are +2 harder until you can properly suck up and prove you're not just a moron. ** We're New Here: You fail to blend in with the crowd here on the docks. Good luck making Streetwise rolls. ** Your Halo is Showing: An evil creature that senses good knows exactly where you are... Removing Aspects Making Overcome rolls to get rid of Aspects is the way it's done. Generally, you roll against your enemy if it's Opposed, or roll against +1 or +2 otherwise. Sometimes we might say the target is the shifts of success rolled by the person setting it up. For instance, your enemy lights a Big Fire in a zone, and succeeds on his roll by 3. For you to get rid of it, you'll have to roll and beat +3. This is essentially (and probably better) explained on pg 133 of Fate.